North Korea Construction at the East and West Border Crossings

Just over a week since North Korea demolished the two main road and rail links connecting it to South Korea, commercial satellite imagery indicates work has begun on a new border fortification or obstacle where the road and railways once sat.

On both the east and west sides of the Korean Peninsula, North Korean soldiers are clearing land and digging wide trenches with what appear to be concrete sides. The nature of the construction is uncertain, but the structures appear similar on each road. Together, they add a level of permanence to the severed cross-border infrastructure.

West Coast Crossing

The west coast crossing connected South Korea’s Dorasan border station with a North Korean road that led into the Kaesong Industrial Zone (also written as Kaesong Industrial Complex). The crossing is part of the Asian Highway 1 (AH-1), a United Nations-backed highway scheme that connects Tokyo in the east to Turkey in the west. While both South Korea and North Korea are signatories to the Asian Highway plan, driving through North Korea has only ever been theoretically possible.

The section inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) is approximately 4.7 kilometers (km) long and is fenced-in at either end. The South Korean border post is located immediately south of the gate, but the North Korean checkpoint is located one kilometer up the road, just before the Kaesong Industrial Zone.

Figure 1. Overview of west coast crossing point from South Korea’s Dorasan border station to the Kaesong Industrial Complex within North Korea’s border. Image © 2024 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].

The military demarcation line (MDL) runs through the DMZ approximately 600 meters from the North Korean gate. It is marked by a slight change in the road surface and signs on each side of the line. The South Korean sign declared the beginning of Kaesong City and strikingly included the words “Good bye” in English. A few meters north, just over the MDL, a North Korean site informed the distance to Kaesong City was five km.

Figure 2. Korean Central Television broadcast still from October 15, 2024 of North Korean personnel near the MDL. (Source: Korean Central Television)

The road has not regularly been used since the complex was shuttered in February 2016. Fences on either side have meant that, like much of the DMZ, the area rarely receives visitors.

Around early December 2023, a series of trenches were dug across the road just north of the South Korean gate. Imagery from February 2024 shows the trenches measuring approximately 180 meters long, running between wooded areas on either side of the road. Their purpose is unclear, although they could be designed to stop traffic from traversing the road.

Notably, the trenches appeared weeks before Kim Jong Un delivered his January 2024 speech, deeming South Korea an “enemy state.” However, it is not possible to determine if these two actions are linked.

Figure 3. Trenching work across the road began in December 2023. Image: Google Earth, annotation by 38 North. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].

In mid-2024, the trenches appeared to have been filled in with dirt or other aggregate.

On October 15, explosives ripped up the inter-Korean road and railway just a few meters north of the MDL.

Figure 4. Broadcast still from October 15, 2024 of west coast road detonation. (Source: Korean Central Television)

Footage released by the South Korean government shows North Korean workers clearing away the roadway debris using backhoes. The North Korean road sign declaring the distance to Kaesong City was also knocked down.

Electrical power lines parallel the road, connecting the North to the South, although they have not transmitted electricity since 2018. It remains to be seen if they will stay in place or also be destroyed.

Figure 5. Korean Central Television broadcast from October 15 reveals the aftermath of west coast road detonation. (Source: Korean Central Television)

Since the detonation, the excavation work has expanded. Imagery from October 17 shows a 50-meter portion of the roadway has been ripped up, and a trench is being dug across the area where the road and railway used to run. As of October 19, the trench was approximately 4 meters wide by 130 meters long.

Figure 6. Three-meter imagery from October 24, 2024 shows continued excavation work at point of detonation on the west coast road. Overview of Image © 2024 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].

East Coast Crossing

The east coast crossing was used to shuttle visitors from South Korea to the Mt. Kumgang Tourist Zone until tours ended in 2008. Like the west coast route, it has not seen any regular traffic in many years. Notionally, it makes up part of the AH-6 route that is meant to run from Busan, South Korea, to Russia’s border with Belarus.

North and South Korea have gates on either side of this section of the DMZ as well, which measures approximately 1.3 kilometers. The MDL lies roughly 300 meters south of the North Korean gate. A single-track railway line runs along the west side of the road.

Figure 7. Overview of east coast crossing area on imagery from October 23, 2024. Image © 2024 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].

Work also began here in December 2023 when a rectangular, dark brown area appeared on the road on the North Korean side of the MDL. There is no imagery record of what occurred just prior to this December activity, so it cannot be determined whether trenches similar to those on AH-1 had been dug to disrupt this stretch of the road surface. Regardless, the nature of this darkened stretch of road is unclear.

The detonation occurred just over the MDL on the North Korean side, as it did on the west coast road.

Figure 8. Still from Korean Central Television broadcast on October 15, 2024 shows detonation on east coast crossing. (Source: Korean Central Television)

Imagery from October 23 shows similar work is taking place, with road clearance and a 140-meter-long trench dug across the road and railway line. The trench is approximately 5 meters wide.

Figure 9. Close up of continued work at detonation point on imagery from October 23, 2024. Image © 2024 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email protected].

Other Roads

There appear to be no recent changes to the roadways at Panmunjom and Arrowhead Hill. The former is required for North Korean vehicles to reach the Joint Security Area, while the latter was reconstructed in 2018 to aid an operation looking for remains of war. Earlier this year, the South Korean government said it had detected North Korean soldiers laying landmines along a portion of the road.

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